With your help, MWOS has contributed $89,502 for the Montreal Children’s Hospital‘s young patients and their families since 1973 (MCH Foundation’s inception).

Membership Update

At our recent AGM held on June 10th, it was decided THAT in addition to MWOS Life Members, all those who attended the AGM FY17 meeting or who expressed their regrets and wish to remain active in the Societywould automatically be included on this year’s (FY18) Company List. This would be extended to include all those who attend (or send regrets to) other meetings of the Society. Please contact members.mwos.org to add your name to this list.

‘Project Phoenix’ – the first step

During the AGM (FY17), attendees were consulted regarding their commitment to MWOS in the future. This session was led by animator and theatrical performance specialist Jane Needles. It was determined that all of those assembled were interested in seeing MWOS continue, but that a process of rebirth and reorganization would have to be accomplished. ‘Project Phoenix’ was established and a small planning committee was struck. For more information, please contact ProjectPhoenix@MWOS.org

OUR SPONSORS / NOS COMMANDITAIRES

The MWOS thanks the sponsors, in particular a Special Thank you to our partner, and
The City of CÔTE SAINT LUC - Mitchell Brownstein, Mayor; & Lisa Milner and the Côte Saint-Luc Dramatic Society
and to
The City of WESTMOUNT
The Borough of CDN-NDG - Marvin Rotrand, Councillor & Russell Copeman, Borough Mayor
and The NDG Constituency - Kathleen Weil, MNA

MWOS becomes the Montreal West-End Operatic Society

It was announced at the Diamond Jubilee - by the MWOS President, Susan Colby-Germinario - that MWOS has turned a corner in modifying its name to become more inclusive and true to its current home. The Montreal Westend is where we rehearse, perform, meet, party and, for the most part, live. Our audiences are primarily from the west-end. We enjoy the support of a number of west-end communities, namely: Côte Saint Luc, Westmount, Montreal West, and the Borough of NDG-CDN. We feel that our new name better describes who we are without losing our former identity. Long live the Montreal West-End Operatic Society!

W. S. Gilbert

W.S. Gilbert was born in London on 18 November 1836. His father William was a naval surgeon who later wrote novels and short stories, some of which included illustrations by his son. In 1861, the younger Gilbert began to write illustrated stories, poems and articles of his own to supplement his income. Many of these would later be mined as a source of ideas for his plays and operas, particularly his series of illustrated poems called the Bab Ballads.

In the Bab Ballads and his early plays, Gilbert developed a unique “topsy-turvy” style, where the humour was derived by setting up a ridiculous premise and working out its logical consequences, however absurd. Mike Leigh describes the “Gilbertian” style as follows:

“With great fluidity and freedom, [Gilbert] continually challenges our natural expectations. First, within the framework of the story, he makes bizarre things happen, and turns the world on its head. Thus the Learned Judge marries the Plaintiff, the soldiers metamorphose into aesthetes, and so on, and nearly every opera is resolved by a deft moving of the goalposts… His genius is to fuse opposites with an imperceptible sleight of hand, to blend the surreal with the real, and the caricature with the natural. In other words, to tell a perfectly outrageous story in a completely deadpan way.”

Gilbert developed his innovative theories on the art of stage direction, following theatrical reformer Tom Robertson. At the time Gilbert began writing, theatre in Britain was in disrepute. Gilbert helped to reform and elevate the respectability of the theatre, especially beginning with his six short family-friendly comic operas, or “entertainments,” for Thomas German Reed.

At a rehearsal for one of these entertainments, Ages Ago (1869), the composer Frederic Clay introduced Gilbert to his friend, the young composer Arthur Sullivan. Two years later, Gilbert and Sullivan would write their first work together. Those two intervening years continued to shape Gilbert’s theatrical style. He continued to write humorous verse, stories and plays, including the comic operas Our Island Home (1870) and A Sensation Novel (1871), and the blank verse comedies The Princess (1870), The Palace of Truth (1870), and Pygmalion and Galatea.